It is known that the apparently simple measure of watering areas of ground covered in particular by dense plant growth can present considerable difficulties. A typical example of this are regularly maintained grassed areas which are subjected locally to pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic. For example, it is known from the maintenance of golf courses or other comparable sports fields and recreation grounds that relatively small or even relatively large areas of grass can dry out despite regular watering. When such areas are watered, the water does not penetrate deeply into the soil and, above all, does not penetrate to the roots of the grass. This can be attributed on the one hand to so-called thatch which, even on the surface of the ground, diverts rainwater from the roots so that the corresponding areas of grass become undernourished, shallow-rooted and unhealthy through overdrying.
However, even uniform distribution of the water on reaching the surface of the ground can present difficulties. Homogeneous spreading of the water applied, especially into the particular root zone, often does not occur. Instead, the water applied trickles in narrow streams into deeper layers of soil so that the damage mentioned above can be caused there also. Additional difficulties can arise where soil has been compacted which is unavoidable in areas subjected to pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic. The problems mentioned not only concern the process of watering. Understandably, corresponding difficulties attend the introduction of nutrients and/or protection agents in uniform distribution into the root zone.
It is known that the problems mentioned above can be better managed by adding wetting agents to the water and/or aqueous treatment formulations used for watering in order to reduce the surface tension of the water in known manner and, in this way, to ensure better spreading of the aqueous phase throughout the soil and particularly in the root zone. Practical use is made of this in the maintenance of sports fields and golf courses and in the protection of other green areas.
The problem addressed by the present invention was to homogenize, intensify and control the introduction of water intoxe2x80x94above allxe2x80x94densely covered areas of ground using a certain wetting aid with the character of an o/w surfactant. More particularly, the teaching according to the invention seeks in particular to provide corresponding low-foam wetting aids in the form of highly concentrated water-containing concentrates which, for practical application, may simply be mixed with the water used for watering.
In a first embodiment, therefore, the present invention relates to a low-foam wetting aid in the form of a highly concentrated but free-flowing and pourable water-containing surfactant-based concentrate for intensifying the penetration and spreading of water around the roots of plants during watering. The water-containing concentrates according to the invention contain alkyl(poly)glycoside compounds of the o/w typexe2x80x94hereinafter also referred to as xe2x80x9cAPGxe2x80x9d compoundsxe2x80x94as an ecologically safe surfactant component. Together with these surfactant components of the APG type, the water-containing concentrate according to the invention contains olefinically unsaturated alcohols, optionally in admixture with partial esters of fatty acids with polyhydric alcohols, as foam suppressors/defoamers and, finally, lower water-soluble alcohols as viscosity controllers.